Read Ebook: The Annals of the Cakchiquels by Arana Xajil Francisco Hern Ndez D Az Gebuta Quej Francisco Active Th Century Contributor Brinton Daniel G Daniel Garrison Editor

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Besides the above, there are five sounds occurring in the Cakchiquel, Quiche and Tzutuhil, for which five special characters were invented, or rather adopted, by the early missionary Francisco de la Parra, who died in Guatemala, in 1560. They are the following:--

The origin and phonetic value of these, as given by the grammarian Torresano, are as follows:--

h A compound sound produced by combining the cuatrillo with a forcible aspirate, is represented by this sign.

Naturally, no description in words can convey a correct notion of these sounds. To learn them, one must hear them spoken by those to the manner-born.

Dr. Otto Stoll, who recently made a careful study of the Cakchiquel when in Guatemala, says of Parra's characters:--

"The four new signs added to the European alphabet, by some of the old writers on Cakchiquel , viz: , , , h, are but phonetic modifications of four corresponding signs of the common alphabet. So we get four pairs of sounds, namely:--

c and ; k and ch and h tz and

forming two series of consonants, the former of which represents the common letters, and the latter their respective "cut letters," which may be described as being pronounced with a shorter and more explosive sound than the corresponding common letter, and separated by a short pause from the preceding or following vowel."

The Maya race, in nearly all its branches, showed its intellectual superiority by the eagerness with which it turned to literary pursuits, as soon as some of its members had learned the alphabet. I have brought forward some striking testimony to this in Yucatan, and there is even more in Central America. The old historians frequently refer to the histories of their own nations, written out by members of the Quiche, Cakchiquel, Pokomam and Tzendal tribes. Vasquez, Fuentes and Juarros quote them frequently, and with respect. They were composed in the aboriginal tongues, for the benefit of their fellow townsmen, and as they were never printed, most of them became lost, much to the regret of antiquaries.

The former, the "Sacred Book" of the Quiches, a document of the highest merits, and which will certainly increase in importance as it is studied, was printed at Paris in 1861, with a translation into French by the Abb? Brasseur . He made use only of the types of the Latin alphabet; and both in this respect and in the fidelity of his translation, he has left much to be desired in the presentation of the work.

What is known of the history of this manuscript, is told us by Don Juan Gavarrete, who, for many years, was almost the only native of Guatemala interested in the early history of his country. He tells us in his introduction to his translation of it, soon to be mentioned, that in 1844 he was commissioned to arrange the archives of the Convent of San Francisco of Guatemala, by order of the Archbishop Don Francisco Garcia Pelaez. Among the MSS. of the archives he found these sheets, written entirely in Cakchiquel, except a few marginal glosses in Spanish, in a later hand, and in ordinary ink. The document was submitted to several persons acquainted with the Cakchiquel language, who gave a general statement of its contents, but not a literal and complete translation.

When, in 1855, the Abb? Brasseur visited Guatemala, Se?or Gavarrete showed him this MS., and the Abb? borrowed it for the purpose of making a full version, doubtless availing himself of the partial translations previously furnished. His version completed, he left a copy of it with Se?or Gavarrete, and brought the original with him to Europe. It remained in his possession until his death at Nice, when, along with the rest of the Abb?'s library, it passed into the hands of M. Alphonse Pinart. This eminent ethnologist learning my desire to include it in the present series of publications, was obliging enough to offer me the opportunity of studying it.

Previous to its discovery in Guatemala, in 1844, we have no record of it whatsoever, and must turn to the document itself for information.

I say "for that portion of it," because I print but 48 out of the 96 pages of the original. These contain, however, all that is of general interest; all that pertains to the ancient history of the nation. The remainder is made up of an uninteresting record of village and family incidents, and of a catalogue of births, baptisms and marriages. The beginning of the text as printed in this volume, starts abruptly in the MS. after seventeen pages of such trivialities, and has no separate title or heading.

The caption of the first page of the MS. explains the purpose of this miscellaneous collection of family documents. That caption is

VAE MEMORIA CHIRE HAOH.

THIS IS THE RECORD FOR THE PROCESS.

The date of the present rescript is not accurately fixed. As it includes the years 1619-20, it must have been later than those dates. From the character of the paper and writing, I should place it somewhere between 1620 and 1650.

VAE MEMORIA CHIRE VINAK CHIJ.

THIS IS THE STATEMENT OF THE TORTS.

or,

VAE MEMORIA ANAVINAKIL.

THIS IS A RECORD OF THE WITNESSES.

The document is made up of the depositions and statements of a number of members of the Xahila family, but that around which the chief interest centres, and that which alone is printed in this volume, is the history of his nation as written out by one of them who had already reached adult years, at the epoch of the first arrival of the Spaniards, in 1524. Unfortunately, his simple-hearted modesty led him to make few personal allusions, and we can glean little information about his own history. The writer first names himself, in the year 1582, where he speaks of "me, Francisco Ernantez Arana." The greater part of the manuscript, however, was composed many years before this. Its author says that his grandfather, the king Hun Yg, and his father, Balam, both died in 1521, and his own marriage took place in 1522. As it was the custom of his nation to marry young, he was probably, at the time, not over 15 years of age.

That Francisco Ernantez was not the author of the first part of the document seems evident. Under the year 1560 occurs the following entry:--

"Twenty days before the Feast of the Nativity my mother died; soon after, my late father was carried off while they were burying my mother; my father took medicine but once before we buried him. The pest continued to rage for seven days after Easter; my mother, my father, my brother and my sister died this year."

It could not, of course, be the son of Balam, who died in 1521, who wrote this.

Under 1563 the writer mentions:--

"At this time my second son Raphael was born, at the close of the fourth year of the fourth cycle after the revolt."

Allowing to these seven who outlived their parents an average survival of twenty years, we are carried back to about the year 1380, as that on which the migration, headed by Gagavitz, began its wanderings, little more, therefore, than the length of two lives as protracted as that of the author himself. This result is that generally obtained by a careful scrutiny of American traditions. They very rarely are so far-reaching as has usually been supposed. Anything spoken of as more than three or four generations distant, may safely be assumed as belonging to myth, and not to history.

The work opens with a statement that the writer intends to record the ancient traditions of his tribe, as handed down from their early heroes, Gagavitz and Zactecauh. He begins with a brief genealogical table of the four sub-tribes of the Cakchiquels , and then relates their notions of the creation of man at one of the mythical cities of Tulan, in the distant west . Having been subjected to onerous burdens in Tulan, they determine to leave it, and are advised to go by their oracles .

They cross the sea, proceeding toward the east, and arrive at a land inhabited by the Nonoualcats, an Aztec people . Their first action is formally to choose Gagavitz and Zactecauh as their joint rulers , and under their leadership they proceed to attack the Nonoualcats. After a severe conflict the Cakchiquels are defeated, and are obliged to seek safety in further wanderings. At length they reach localities in Guatemala . At this point an episode is introduced of their encounter with the spirit of the forests, Zakiqoxol .

They meet with various nations, some speaking a totally different language; others, as the Mams and Pokomams, dialects of their own. With the last mentioned they have serious conflicts . During one of their journeys, Zactecauh is killed by falling down a ravine . An episode here relates the traditional origin of one of their festivals, that in honor of Gagxanul, "the uncoverer of the fire" .

Their first arrival at Lake Atitlan is noted , and the war that they waged with the Ikomags . Here an episode describes the traditional origin of the festival of Tolgom . A peaceful division of the lake with the Tzutuhils is effected, and marriages take place between the tribes .

The Cakchiquels, Quiches and Akahals now settle permanently in their towns, and develop their civilization . They meet with numerous hardships, as well as internal dissensions, the chief Baqahol at one time obtaining the leadership. They succeed in establishing, however, family life and a fixed religious worship, though in almost constant war with their neighbors .

Gagavitz, "he who came from Tulan," dies, and is followed by Cay Noh and Cay Batz . These acknowledge the supremacy of Tepeuh, the king of the Quiches, and are sent out by him to collect tribute from the various tribes. They are seduced and robbed by the Tzutuhils, and conceal themselves in a cave, out of fear of Tepeuh. He forgives them, however, and they continue in power until their death .

After this, a period of strife follows, and the names of four successive rulers are mentioned, but none of the occurrences of their reigns .

The narrative is resumed when Qikab, king of the Quiches, orders the Cakchiquels to settle at the town of Chiavar. He appoints, as their rulers, the warriors Huntoh and Vukubatz. A revolt agains Qikab, headed by his two sons, results in his defeat and death . During this revolt, a contest between the Cakchiquels takes place, the close of which finds the latter established in their final stronghold, the famous fortress of "Iximche on the Ratzamut" .

At the death of Huntoh and Vukubatz, they are succeeded by Lahuh Ah and Oxlahuh Tzii, who carry on various wars, and especially defeat the Quiches in a general engagement, which is vividly described . They also conquer the Akahals, killing their king Ichal, and the Tzutuhils, with their king Caoke .

During their reign, a sanguinary insurrection occurred in Iximche, of such importance that the author adopts its date as the era from which to reckon all subsequent events . This date corresponded to the year 1496, A. D.

The following years are marked by a series of unimportant wars, the outbreak of a destructive pestilence, and finally, in 1524, twenty-eight years after the Insurrection, by the arrival of the Spanish forces under Alvarado .

The later pages are taken up with an account of the struggles between the natives and the whites, until the latter had finally established their supremacy.

In printing the MS. of Xahila, I have encountered certain difficulties which have been only partially surmounted. As the Cakchiquel, though a written, is not a printed tongue, there has no rule been established as to the separation of verbs and their pronominal subjects, of nouns and their possessive pronouns, of the elements of compound particles, of tense and mode signs, etc. In the MSS. the utmost laxity prevails in these respects, and they seem not to have been settled points in the orthography of the tongue. The frequent elisions and euphonic alterations observable in these compounds, prove that to the native mind they bore the value of a single word, as we are aware they did from a study of the structure of this class of languages. I have, therefore, felt myself free to exercise in the printed page nearly the same freedom which I find in the MS. At first, this will prove somewhat puzzling to the student of the original, but in a little while he will come to recognize the radical from its augment without difficulty.

Another trouble has been the punctuation. In the original this consists principally of dashes and commas, often quite capriciously distributed. Here also, I have been lax in reducing the text to the requirements of modern standards, and have left much latitude to the reader to arrange it for himself.

Capital letters are not often used in the original to distinguish proper names, and as the text has been set up from a close copy of the first text, some irregularities in this respect also must be anticipated.

The paragraphs numbered in the text are distinctly marked in the original, but are not numbered there. The numerals have been added for convenience of reference.

FOOTNOTES:

It is interesting in this connection to observe how widespread was the symbolic significance of the canopy, or sun shade, as a mark of dignity. The student of Shakspeare will recall the lines in his 125th sonnet--

"Were it aught to me I bore the canopy, With my extern the outward honouring;"

"En el Reyno de Guatemala, en la parte que va por la Sierra, estaban ciudades de caba muy grandes, con maravillosos edificios de cal y canto, de los cuales yo vi muchos; y otros pueblos sin numero de aquellas sierras."

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